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Final sacrifice
General synopsis: AU universe, in which removing your helmet is punished by death if the members of the covert esteem it so. Otherwise all canon compliant until E16 “The Rescue”, where Skywalker doesn’t show up but Din fights the Dark Troopers with the Darksaber. Din and Grogu, together, they find the covert, mostly as occurs in E5 of TBOBF. This fanfic takes off from where Din accepts Paz’s duel for the DarkSaber.
Relationships: Mando x Omera
Characters: Din Djarin, Grogu, Omera, Winta. Eventually Cara, Fennec, Boba Fett
Omera stayed next to the Mandalorian, Grogu still in her arms. She held the child tight, but the kid was inconsolable. She was surprised to notice that he wasn’t loud, he just allowed the tears to roll over his cheeks. She couldn’t help but think of how the galaxy must have treated him, all that he must have endured. The Mandalorian had briefly mentioned that he had lived through some hard experiences, and couldn’t help but wonder if crying in silence was an acquired habit for the small child. Omera continued rocking him and humming softly, just as she recalled doing for Winta whenever she woke up from a nightmare during the night. When the kid finally fell asleep between sobs and small hiccups, Omera took him back to their room and tugged him in next to Winta, who was fast asleep. Her chest was tight with plenty of emotions, tears that she hadn’t allowed herself to shed until now. She felt trapped, needed a way out where she could release her feelings, somewhere where she would be sure she wouldn’t let the children suffer from her need to evacuate the terrible pressure preventing her from breathing. She barely made it to the door of the large room where they were staying. She closed the door behind her, and couldn’t help but lean on it and slide down to end up sitting on the floor. Then, all her emotions just broke out, and not being nearly as silent as the small child had been, she cried for the baby, for the Mandalorian and for herself. Knees tight to her chest, she allowed everything to come out.
Her own sobs didn’t allow her to notice that Cara was kneeling next to her, she jolted when she set a hand on her shoulder.
-“Is everything alright?” she asked Omera.
-“I’m sorry, I guess I just had too much bottled up. Everything is just fine. The Mandalorian seems to be healing, the children are asleep”, she said while whipping her face with the back of her hand, trying hard to regain composure.
Cara finally sat next to her, having no doubt that Omera would need a bit more encouragement and time to share whatever was truly upsetting her. She sat next to her in silence, giving her the time to order her thoughts. They stayed like that for a while, Omera appreciating the company.
-“I think the child has… some kind of… powers?” said Omera finally, breaking the silence. “Something happened while the Mandalorian was in the tank. He kept thrashing, as if he was dreaming. The child… he put his hand on the window of the tank and…” Omera took a moment to take a deep breath. She couldn’t help but think she was about to say something crazy, and was somehow a bit embarrassed. “I think he was able to see what the Mandalorian was dreaming about, and was able to show me as well.”
Cara didn’t answer immediately, taking in all the information.
-“You must think I’m crazy…” said Omera shaking her head, interpreting Cara’s silence as clear evidence that the woman must be thinking she was out of her mind.
-“He is indeed a gifted child, and that’s why he’s being hunted”.
Shocked, Omera promptly looked back at her questioningly.
It took Cara a bit of time to find her words, but she eventually decided to satisfy Omera’s curiosity.
-“The first time he tried to choke me with his powers when he thought I was hurting the Mandalorian during an arm wrestling match”, she chuckled. “Since then, I’ve seen him heal wounds, levitate things… But that’s not the reason you are upset”, she continued, returning her gaze to Omera.
-“In this dream… In fact, I think it was more like a memory, like I could see life through his eyes. He was executing people, leaving a trail of bodies as he walked down the streets of a village. Terrified people running away from the massacre he alone was committing…”
Cara remained silent, looking at her feet.
-“You must think I am so… naïve…” she continued. “I know he’s job description includes killing people, but seeing…”
-“I think that, even if you haven’t yet admitted it out loud, you have strong feelings for the man”, interrupted Cara, still keeping her gaze down on her feet, pensive. “Don’t let what you saw affect you, at least not right now. You don’t know what it was about. It could be a memory, it could be a nightmare. But either way, we both know he’s a good person, gentle and fair when circumstances allow him to be. But it’s a difficult galaxy out there, and he’s a bounty hunter. I’m pretty sure he must have done merc work as well. People like Din… well… sometimes we do what we need to survive.”
Now it was Omera’s turn to stay silent, tears started to come again from her eyes while she turned to face Cara.
-“I understand the conflict you must be living right now. I guess… all I’m saying is that he’s a Mandalorian. War and weapons are part of his life, of his religion. Violence has been integrated into his DNA since he was a kid, and probably because of that, more than most he deserves to find some peace”.
They both stayed in comfortable silence for a while, before Cara broke the silence.
-“When was the last time you slept?”
Omera couldn’t even remember, and with the trip and the arrival, she couldn’t figure out how much time had passed since she rested last.
Her silence was all Cara needed to know. “Try to catch some sleep, join the children. I will stay with the Mandalorian and will let you know if there’s any change.”
-“Thank you Cara, you’re a good friend”. With that, she rose and, after giving a thankful last look at Cara, she went back inside her room. She found the children still asleep. Taking off her boots, and being as stealthy as possible, she joined them on the large bed where they were sleeping. Feeling slightly less distressed after talking to Cara, she put her arm around the sleeping children and fell asleep before she could even realize she had closed her eyes.
—
Omera woke up to the children waking up. Winta was hugging a yawning Grogu, still half asleep. She looked out the window to see that the horizon was being tainted with the first lights of the dawning suns.
-“Good morning, momma”.
-“Good morning sweethearts”, she said, giving them both a smile and a big kiss.
-“How is the Mandalorian?” Winta whispered.
-“He was doing better last time I checked on him. But why don’t we get you first meal and we go check ourselves?”
-“Would you like that, Grogu?” Winta said to the baby, still feeling weird to call him by his real name.
The child chirped with excitement. After all, she realized the children hadn’t eaten anything since their arrival on Tatooine (in fact neither did she), having been more worried and tired than anything else. They all headed to the main hall where they had met Boba and Fennec the previous evening, meeting Cara on the way as she came out of another of the rooms.
-“Oh good, you’re awake!” she said. “The Mandalorian just finished his first session in the bacta tank and has been moved into this room” she said pointing at the door she has just closed.
Winta, with Grogu in her arms, was quick to pull her mother’s apron and ask her if they could go in and see him.
-“Go get first meal first, and after, sure”, Omera encouraged them.
-“Come, I will take you”, said Cara, offering Winta her hand, which she took without hesitation. “You take your time, Omera” she said turning to the woman. “I will bring you a plate to the room in a bit”.
-“Thank you, Cara. I appreciate it”.
Omera saw the kids leave with Cara, and taking a deep breath, she opened the door to the Mandalorian’s room. Her heart twisted in her chest, when she found him lying in the middle of the room on single bed. An IV stand next to it held some bags and cannulas that were attached to the man’s hand. A medical droid was working injecting something in the lines. Fett, who was standing on the opposite side of the bed, turned to Omera as she stepped inside the room.
-“Good morning Omera”, he greeted her.
-“Morning, Boba. How is he fairing?” she said, approaching them.
-“Quite good for just having finished his first session in the tank. He still needs a lot of fluid, so he will receive some before going into the tank again. You did a good job keeping him alive. He owes you his life”.
-“That’s good to hear”, Omera said with relief.
-“The hypoxic injury to the kidneys and liver seems to be almost resolved”, Boba explained. Omera turned to see his fingers and toes still lightly blue, and following her gaze, Boba was quick to reassure her.
-“That should heal as well. What is apparently more of a problem is the hypoxic damage to his heart and brain, he might need a bit more time to get over that” he continued.
And there it was again, a huge knot in her stomach formed once more. She walked around the bed to have a better look at the Mandalorian’s face. She couldn’t help but to gently move a curly lock of his hair away from his forehead, clearing his face.
-“This droid has done wonders with me, and I am confident he will do the same with Djarin. Stay strong, he will overcome this”, Boba reassured her.
He approached her, and after putting a hand on her should and giving her a reassuring look, he stepped out of the room.
Omera felt again overwhelmed being left alone to the torturous devices of her mind, which kept throwing at her ideas of how she could have been braver and done more to help him while waiting for Cara to arrive. She tried everything she could to keep those negative thoughts at bay, consciously knowing that they served no purpose and they were doing no favor to her.
The droid kept shuffling material around the Mandalorian from a nearby tray containing various instruments. She saw how it took again the mediscan, passing it over the man’s heart and looking at the readouts. He after turned to collect a vial from the same tray and inject its contents into the Mandalorian’s IV line.
At this point, Omera was more focused on what the droid was doing than on the Mandalorian. But in the corner of her eye, for an extremely brief moment, she thought the man had twitched. She turned her head to see that, without any additional movement or sound, Din had opened his eyes. She could realize he was very much out of it, but upon focusing on the droid, working on his IV line, his eyes suddenly opened wide. Before she knew it, the Mandalorian jumped out of the bed, pushing her harshly aside by hitting her chest with an open hand, making her fall backwards. Scared, she tried moving away from the Mandalorian by crawling backwards. The man had made quick work of ripping his lines. Grabbing a small knife he found on the tray, he strongly engaged on the droid. Omera couldn’t help but see the rage in the Mandalorian’s eyes, who was trying with all his might to rip out one of the droid’s arms. He growled with the effort, but after a couple of seconds, the mechanical arm detached from its owner making it spark. With one quick jolt, the droid’s arm was sent flying to the other side of the room. The droid was making unintelligible noises, at least, that’s all Omera could make out. Awkward mechanical sounds filled the room when he used the knife to stab the droid to its neck, rivulets of oil spilling on the floor. The Mandalorian then grabbed the droid’s head with his left forearm, and in one swift movement, he twisted it and ripped it off, sending the droid, as a dead weight, to the ground.
The droid lay only some meters away from Omera, sparkles jumping from it. The Mandalorian stood looking down at the droid, knife still in his hand, panting with the effort it took him to bring the droid down. His gaze, still filled with infinite rage, moved then to focus on Omera. This made her shiver. Still on the ground, she realized he was not being himself, and she unconsciously tried to move further away from the man. She then heard the door of the room open in her back. Not daring taking away her eyes from the immediate threat the Mandalorian may be posing to her, she heard the sound of plates and glasses hitting the ground behind her, and saw Cara quickly stepping in between the Mandalorian and herself, clearly aiming to protect her.
-“What the hell, Djarin” she said angrily. “Come on, calm down. Give me the knife”, she said reaching out with her hand cautiously.
The Mandalorian didn’t respond except for adjusting his stance, on a defensive mode, knife still tight in his hand pointing towards Cara.
-“Don’t you recognize me, tin can? It’s me, Cara!” She tried reasoning, but it was evident that the man was unaware of his surroundings.
Without any warning, the Mandalorian dashed towards Cara, who avoided most of his attacks trying not to hurt more the injured man. Seeing that he wasn’t giving up, after a couple of movements, she got a punch through to the Mandalorian’s gut wound, aiming to incapacitate him the time for her to regain control of the fight.
The man’s body bent forward in pain, eyes strongly closed but emitted no sound.
Omera, who was standing again, approached Cara.
-“Din, it’s us. You’re safe here. Please come back to us…” implored Omera still protected by Cara.
Something seemed to click in the Mandalorian’s foggy head. To Cara’s and Omera’s relief something started to change in his expression as well, slowly changing from the rage he was showing to surprise, and then, they realized, to horror. He looked everywhere around him, as if suddenly was more aware of his surroundings, and then returned his gaze to the women.
-“Omera?” He said, as if not believing his eyes. “Cara? What…..” he continued. Slowly, he looked at his hands, now aware they were soaked with droid oil, dropping on the floor. Upon seeing the knife still clutched in his hand, he dropped it as if it was suddenly burning him.
-“I… I” He stammered. He then started to stumble, as if his legs were soon going to give up on him. Grabbing his head with both his hands, he started falling to the ground. Cara had just the time to hold him enough for him not to get hurt with the fall.
Omera approched them and saw the Mandalorian, now on his knees, still holding his head and mumbling something about it hurting.
-“Let’s get you back to the bed” she said.
-“You think you can do that, bucket head?” Teased Cara, although Omera could well hear the worry in her voice.
Seeing that he never got to answer, both women nodded to each other and without further words, helped the man back to the bed.
Now lying, Din’s eyes still remained tightly shut, hands not letting go of his head. His breath was labored.
-“Mando, how are you feeling?” Said Omera, trying to move his hands away from his head, aiming to get a clearer view of his face.
-“O-Omera…?” He said at the sound of her voice, turning his head slightly towards her, eyes half way open, but clearly unfocused.
-“Yes, Din, it’s me. Are you in pain? Do you need something?” She continued. She could feel that the effects of adrenaline of the fight were starting to wear off, making him progressively more incoherent. His head was now lolling from one side to the other, murmuring things that the women couldn’t really work out. Omera wondered if he was even speaking basic.
-“I will go get some help”.
But the Mandalorian was quick to turn around with the clear intention of grabbing Omera by her wrist, though missing to catch her.
-“P-please… don't… don’t l-leav’” he implored, closing again his eyes. His breath started slowing down and she noticed how his arm started losing the little coordination it had, and finished by falling to the side of the bed.
-“Mando? Din!” Omera said, softly shaking him by the shoulder.
-“He’s out again” confirmed Cara. “I will go find Fett”.
